News Roundup: September 10 - October 12

mossy_11 on Wednesday, 12 October 2011. Posted in News

Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs died last week. Jobs oversaw development of the Macintosh, iPod, iPhone, and iPad, and he masterminded Apple's late-90s revival. He also built Pixar Animation Studios out of Lucasfilm's Graphics Group (which he acquired in 1986). He changed the world, and it is less of a magical place for his passing. Our hearts go out to his family and friends.


Fans of the Glider series, which we've covered extensively here on MacScene, will delight in the news that their creator John Calhoun has released Glider Classic for iOS. It runs on any iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad with iOS 3.2 or later. Look out for my thoughts on the game in an upcoming Mac Classics Reborn post.


Mike Gleason recently released a new game for 68k Macs. Daleks Forever is a remake of the 1984 Mac game Daleks, which itself was inspired by an older UNIX game called Robots. You can see a long feature list and a few screenshots, plus get a download link, here.


You may have noticed that our new emulators database is looking a little sparse. We'd love your help in filling it up. Get in touch if you're interested.


Continue reading for the emulation news, including new VMWare Fusion, updates to JPCSP, Macifom, and Mini vMac, a new emulator, and more.

Sega Model 3 arcade emulator Supermodel now has a Mac OS X (Intel only) version. Recent updates added SCSP sound and MPEG board music, and a majority of Model 3 games are already playable. There's some real development talent behind this one, so look for it to go a long way. You can learn more about the emulator, check out screenshots and compatibility lists, and find a download link at the official Supermodel website.


Hot on the heels of Parallels Desktop 7, VMware Fusion 4 was released last month. The big check points among "more than 90 new features" are "turbocharged performance" with faster 3D graphics, OS X Lion integration, and an "even more Mac-like" design. You can check out the full list of new features at the official VMWare Fusion website.


The developers of Java-based PlayStation Portable emulator JPCSP released updated builds from their svn source at the beginning of October. New features include DLC support. Get it from the official JPCSP website.


Mac-only NES emulator Macifom has been updated to version 0.16. Changes include support for software that uses the VRC1, VRC2a, VRC2b, and iNES #184 mappers, in addition to improved USB gamepad/joystick support. Leopard users take note that Macifom now requires Mac OS X 10.6 or later. Head over to the official Macifom website for a download link.


Dolphin, a Nintendo Wii and Gamecube emulator, has been getting regular minor updates, with each change to the source leading to a new build for Windows and Mac OS X. Keep tabs on the Dolphin download page for the latest version.


Free42, a re-implementation of the HP-42S calculator and HP-82240 printer, has reached version 1.4.70. A Mac-specific bug that caused the OFF command to not work when invoked from within a program has been fixed, along with several bugs related to complex trigonometric equations. Get it from the official Free42 website.


Early-68k Macintosh emulator Mini vMac has reached 3.2.3 beta. See here for a detailed changelog, which includes refinements to the AutoSlow feature and improved stability when emulated programs "misbehave." Download it here, or head over to either the Mini vMac "Start" page or the eMaculation forums for help getting started.


Riven X, a fan-made Mac OS X engine intended for use with the original Riven: The Sequel to Myst, has been updated to version 0.9.8. The only listed change is a fix to an issue involving missing sound effects and music. Head over to the Riven X homepage or launchpad site for more information.


XRoar, a multi-platform Dragon 32/64 and Tandy Colour Computer (CoCo) emulator, has been updated to version 0.27. The Changelog lists fixes associated with CPU and Tape emulation and with VDK files. You can get this latest version, and every old version, at the XRoar website.


Commodore 64 emulator VirtualC64 has been updated to version 0.9.6. This update fixes joystick issues on machines running OS X Lion and integrates the ReSID library. Grab it from Dirk W. Hoffmann's VirtualC64 page.


Arcade emulator MAME, and its Intel-Mac port SDLMAME, has picked up yet another minor update (two minor updates, actually). See here for the changes.


SpeedofMac's Mupen64Plus frontend, wxMupen64Plus, has been updated. This new version features improvements to video and input handling. Get it from SpeedofMac's website.


In news that will surprise none of the regular readers of this roundup, open-source x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualisation tool VirtualBox has received a new maintenance release (4.1.4). See here for a list of changes.


Got any news tips? Let us know on the forums.

Comments (2)

  • mossy_11

    mossy_11

    12 October 2011 at 15:33 |
    Sorry it's a bit late this month. I actually wrote most of the roundup more than a week ago -- I've just been too busy to finish it and get it posted.
  • dickmedd

    dickmedd

    12 October 2011 at 16:27 |
    Good update as always. Reminds me that I still need to get iOS Glider.

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